


Author Notes on Child Ages and Worldbuilding in the Bits and Pieces series

by IamShadow21



Series: Bits and Pieces [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Ableism, Chronic Illness, Clones, Eugenics, Gen, Harm to Children, Headcanon, Hydra (Marvel), Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Past Child Abuse, References to child murder, Worldbuilding, references to Non-Consensual Genetic Modification
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-09
Updated: 2014-09-09
Packaged: 2018-02-16 18:20:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2279961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IamShadow21/pseuds/IamShadow21
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just some worldbuilding thoughts that didn't fit into the main story (A Little Bit of You, A Little Piece of Me) and were too big for the End Notes box. :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Author Notes on Child Ages and Worldbuilding in the Bits and Pieces series

**Author's Note:**

> If you're new, read [A Little Bit of You, A Little Piece of Me](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2274387) first, and check out [the gorgeous art](http://archiveofourown.org/works/2279904) by kath-ballantyne!
> 
> This head canon touches on some darkish stuff, so if you don't want to think about what Hydra were doing trying to clone Steve and Bucky, then feel free to skip this, or just scroll down to look at the list of how old the kids are and skip the surrounding explanatory paragraphs. There are grim reasons for the ages, but nothing much darker than is hinted at in the original story. Of course, your mileage may vary, so use your own discretion.

Okay, a note on the ages of the kids. No, I didn't state in the story exactly the reason for the age discrepancies. Does this mean I don't have a head canon? Absolutely not. 

I think the kids were created and grown in an accelerated fashion until about the physical development of a four-year old. Once they woke, they would have had to learn how to control their bodies, to walk and talk, etc, but they would have done it at an accelerated rate due to made-up evil science. They should develop at regular kid-rate after that.

So, here are the ages of the kids. First, their actual, calender age, then, with four years added, their age as they look, physically.

Alexis = 7y + 4 = 11y  
Luc = 4y 8m + 4 = 8y 8m  
Brant = 4y + 4 = 8y  
Simon = 3y 3m + 4 = 7y 3m  
Felix = 2y 10m + 4 = 6y 10m  
Fido = 2y 10m + 4 = 6y 10m  
Liam = 2y 6m + 4 = 6y 6m  
Connor & Colin = 2y 3m + 4 = 6y 3m  
Robbie = 2y + 4 = 6y  
Vincent = 23m + 4 = 5y 11m  
Kris = 16m + 4 = 5y 6m

Does this mean they're mentally the age their bodies look? Not quite, because a) experiential memory matters and shapes us, and the kids are all four years behind on that and b) they grew up in a lab, without the wider world to develop their selves further. They can do things a kid their age would be able to do, like use a pen or learn to ride a bike, but they're behind on a lot of social/emotional things, and probably have a whole swag of attachment and trust issues.

Also, there's an asymmetrical scattering of ages. Why? Because the first few 'batches' were resounding failures. Because the babies they made didn't survive, or weren't viable. I think the program had been running for at least ten years when Bucky found it, and Alexis is the survivor, the first kid that they got to 'work'. And he was a fluke; they couldn't replicate it again until about two and a half years later, Luc survived. And then, in the next batch, Brant. It isn't until almost the time they found Steve that they finally got two kids survive out of a single batch - Felix and Fido, which is why they're closely bonded and act fairly twinny even though they weren't technically twins.

Having found a method that worked better, they put all their eggs in one basket and really focussed on getting the Steve-based kids to work, focussing on one potential foetus at a time, and they got a high success rate, given how much trouble they had at the start. They even fluke it by producing a pair of mirror twins, Connor and Colin, something they wouldn't have been able to do on purpose and would have been pleased with themselves over. Only problem is, the kids aren't well, and at least one of the survivors, Robbie, has a heart defect. So they switch back to Bucky's genes, which is where Kris comes into things.

Why didn't they dump the kids when it became obvious they weren't little supersoldiers? Well, because, genetically, they are compatible with the Serum. Both Bucky and Steve survived and were stable with versions of the serum inside of them. You only have to look at Red Skull, Hulk and The Abomination to realise how precious that is. So, what they have are a dozen potential future Winter Soldiers, and even Robbie was worth hanging on to for a while in case they got their chance at that. I think Hydra always planned on getting their hands on Steve somehow and getting the serum out of him. The events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier suggests that this was no longer the goal, that Steve was to be killed, and that Bucky, their prize for seventy years, was disposable. (Who needs a secret assassin when you can kill anyone, at any time from a flying airship?) So Bucky came at just the right moment to save them; a time when Hydra was vulnerable, and when its focus had been distracted from the long term goal of making their own new Winter Soldiers from scratch on American soil.


End file.
